Frozen
Frozen is an American 3D computer animated musical fantasy comedy-drama film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. The movie uses the same animation style as Tangled. It is loosely inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "The Snow Queen". It is the 53rd animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. It also features the 12th and 13th members of the Disney Princess line-up, Anna and Elsa. The film features the voices of Kristen Bell as Anna and Idina Menzel as Elsa, in both speaking and singing roles, along with Jonathan Groff playing the role of mountain man Kristoff, Josh Gad as Olaf the Snowman and Santino Fontana as Prince Hans of the Southern Isles. It was released in US theaters on November 27, 2013. It became avalible for download in HD Digital on February 25, 2014, while the Blu-ray and DVD was released on March 18, 2014. Frozen underwent several story treatments for several years and almost ended up in Development Hell, before being commissioned in 2011, with a screenplay written by Jennifer Lee, and both Chris Buck and Lee serving as co directors. Christophe Beck, who had worked on Disney's award-winning short Paperman, was hired to compose the film's orchestral score, while husband and wife songwriting team Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez penned the songs. Frozen premiered at the El Capitan Theatre on November 19, 2013 and went into general release on November 27. Not accounting for inflation, the film is the highest-grossing animated film of all time and the sixth highest-grossing film of all time, having so far grossed $1.2 billion in worldwide box office revenue, $400 million of which in the United States and Canada. It was met with widespread critical acclaim, and several film critics considered it to be the best Disney animated musical since the studio's renaissance era. The film won two Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song ("Let It Go"), the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film, the BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film, five Annie Awards (including Best Animated Feature), and two Critics' Choice Awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song ("Let It Go"). This is also WDAS's second Andersen-inspired full-length feature, the first being "The Little Mermaid" (not counting "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" from Fantasia 2000 and "The Little Matchgirl"). On January 31, 2014, a sing along version of the movie was in select theaters for a limited time. Plot The film begins with several ice harvesters collecting ice out from a frozen lake in the cold regions of the land ("Frozen Heart"). Among them is an 8-year old boy named Kristoff with his reindeer calf, Sven. After collecting enough ice, the harvesters depart to the kingdom of Arendelle late at night. At the same time, in a castle that ruled a great land, 5-year old Princess Anna (Livvy Stubenrauch) wakes her elder sister, 8-year old Elsa (Eva Bella) to play. Elsa playfully brushed her sister off until it was suggested they build a snowman, to which Elsa delightfully agrees. The sisters head into the castle's throne room and create a winter field of snow using Elsa's snow magic, enjoying their time with plenty of merriment. They build a snowman, who Elsa names Olaf, and likes warm hugs. However when Elsa hits Anna with her powers in an attempt to save her little sister from falling, the royal family journeys to the legendary Valley of the Living Rock to seek the help of trolls who remove the magic from Anna, and her memory of her sister's magic ability. In order to protect Elsa from the world until she can learn to control her powers, she is ostracized from everyone, including Anna, leaving both sisters distraught and lonely. Their despair only escalates when their parents die 10 years later, after they go on a ship to sail somewhere when a storm erupts and a wave capsizes the ship. Three years later, it is the day of Elsa's (Idina Menzel) coronation ceremony. Dignitaries from around the world are coming to visit, including the Duke of Weselton (Alan Tudyk), who wants to run Arendelle's profits dry. Nobody is more excited than Anna (Kristen Bell), as they are finally opening the gates to the kingdom. She is happy to see other people, and hopes for the possibility of meeting that special someone, but Elsa is still concerned about trying to control her powers ("For the First Time in Forever"). As she strolls out onto the streets, she bumps into a horse, which happens to belong to the charming and handsome Prince Hans (Santino Fontana) of the Southern Isles. Though angered at first by the clumsiness of the stranger, once Anna lays his eyes on him, she is attracted by Hans's appearance and looks. The coronation goes off without a hitch, despite Elsa's fears and she even takes time to connect with her sister at the party. Flustered at first, Anna's interaction with her sister brings quite the delightful feeling to the princess, and seeing Elsa so happy instead of serious and preserved boosts Anna's confidence, prompting her to continue on with the conversation before they're interrupted by their steward, Kai, who introduces the snide Duke of Weselton, who offers Elsa her first dance as queen. Elsa politely declines the offer but instead playfully volunteers Anna, much to the Duke's delight, nonetheless, and the two head off into a comical dance scene. In during which, seeing Anna innocently flustered by the Duke's over-the-top dancing skills, Elsa couldn't hold back a chuckle, causing Anna to feel just as whimsical about the entire matter, for seeing Elsa in such a state hasn't been a sight for years. Afterwards, Anna returns by Elsa's side, commenting on how well things have been going through the day, and expresses her wishes to have things the way they were that night all the time. Unfortunately, all at once, Elsa's smile fades away and she reluctantly denies Anna's wishes, though fails to explain why so. Anna and Hans then sneak off to spend the evening together, quickly realizing the mutual attraction between them. The romantic dance eventually leads to an entire date ("Love is an Open Door"), with the entire night of the young couple being spent bonding. During their time together, Hans learns of Anna's longing of having someone special in her life, with her sister apparently developing a dislike of being around her by suddenly shutting Anna out one day when they were kids, to which Hans openly relates to, only furthering Anna's connection with him. And with this, Hans promises to never shut Anna out, unlike Elsa, much to the princess' absolute joy. By the end of their tour throughout the kingdom, Hans proposes right on the spot, and Anna immediately accepts. The two head back the ballroom, where Anna asks for Elsa's blessing on the marriage. Elsa's baffled by the shocking news, but Anna and Hans couldn't appear more excited, going on to ramble about the wedding arrangements. Elsa ceases the sudden rambling by denying the marriage, much to Anna's heartbreak. The queen asks to speak to Anna alone in private, likely to finally confess her abilities and why it's not wise to marry a total stranger without causing a scene that would surely get her true magical nature exposed, but the younger princess refuses any private conversation, stating whatever Elsa has to say can be said to both her and Hans. Becoming frustrated, Elsa outright forbids Anna of marrying someone she just met, indirectly telling the princess she knows nothing about true love, causing Anna to hiss back, telling Elsa all she knows is how to shut people out. Although Elsa is visibly hurt by this, Elsa continues to refuse, and the argument only worsens when Elsa orders the guards to end the party and close the gates. Elsa refuses to grant her blessing on the marriage, setting off an argument between the sisters and culminating in Elsa's abilities being exposed to the party guests. Panicking, Elsa flees with Anna in hot pursuit. As she becomes more stressed and panicked, the weather starts turning colder: snow begins to fall and Elsa races across the fjord, freezing it with each step but turning the whole body of water into ice, trapping all the ships before spreading throughout the rest of the kingdom. Having fail to retrieve her, Anna and Hans returns to the castle courtyard, where the guests have gathered. The Duke of Weselton begins to panic as it eerily begins snowing, declaring they must take action and put an end to Elsa's curse, but Anna refuses and volunteers to seek out Elsa herself and make things right, feeling its her fault for pushing her. With Hans being left in charge of the kingdom, Anna heads off on her horse to begin her search for her sister. She makes it to the North Mountain where she laments her failure at keeping the powers contained but quickly becomes more and more at ease and relaxed, free to use her powers as she pleases (singing the song "Let It Go", creating a snowman (the same one she and Anna built when they were young), an ice castle, and an ice dress). While searching for Elsa, Anna loses her horse in the process. She travels on foot until nightfall, where she finds herself at Wandering Oaken's Trading Post and Sauna. She asks the shop owner, Oaken (Chris Williams) for winter boots and dresses. She makes small talk with him, then meets Kristoff (Jonathan Groff). Anna convinces Kristoff to take her to the North Mountain, where the source of the winter is coming from. On their journey, they get attacked by wolves, causing Kristoff to lose his sled. They continue on foot, and meets Olaf (Josh Gad), the snowman Elsa created, who seems to be alive. Olaf shares his dreams of experiencing summer ("In Summer"), and agrees to lead them to Elsa's hideout. The gang makes it to Elsa's castle. Anna and Elsa reunite, and while both are happy to see each other, Elsa still harbors fears of wounding Anna once again. Despite Anna's promising to stand by her sister and help her, Elsa only grows more agitated and nervous resulting in her magic flaring, this time striking Anna in the heart. Elsa, in desperation to get her sister to safety, creates a giant snow creature (that Olaf calls "Marshmallow") to throw them out. As revenge, Anna balls up a snowball and throws it at the giant beast. Though it left literally no damage whatsoever, the lack of respect was enough to infuriate Marshmallow, causing him to chase Anna, Kristoff, and Olaf down the northern mountain, most likely to eliminate them. Marshmallow manages to corner them at the edge of a cliff, though Kristoff immediately begins digging a snow anchor, using a rope to safely guide himself and Anna down the mountain to safety. However, Marshmallow catches up to them, though Olaf tries to stop him. Annoyed, Marshmallow kicks Olaf over the cliff, and continues his chase for Anna and Kristoff, pulling them up to his face by the rope, and ordering them once more to never return, just before Anna grabs Kristoff's knife, cuts the rope, the sends the duo plummeting down, though they survive. With his mission to drive them away complete, Marshmallow returns to the ice palace. After they escaped the snow monster, Kristoff notices that Anna's hair is turning white, and he takes them to seek help. Kristoff leads Anna (who is slowly freezing) to the trolls. A mix-up occurs, and the trolls insist Anna and Kristoff get married ("Fixer Upper"). Before the two can be wed by Gothi The Troll Priest, Anna collapses and Grand Pabbie appears. According to him, only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart or else Anna will freeze solid. Kristoff races back to Arendelle to get Anna to Hans, believing true love's kiss will save her. Meanwhile, Hans, on a search for Anna after her horse returns to the kingdom without her, and the guards find the ice castle. The moment they come close enough, Marshmallow reveals himself from the form of snowy boulders in case more unwanted guests were to arrive. and jumps right into battle. The soldiers immediately attack the beast with their arrows, infuriating Marshmallow and causing his ultimate form to be unleashed. Marshmallow is able to hold most of the guards off, though Hans proves to be a fierce warrior, himself, avoiding each of Marshmallow's attacks and eventually using his sword to slice the snow monster's leg off, causing him to lose balance and begin tumbling over to a large gorge. With Marshmallow wounded, Hans begins heading inside Elsa's castle, but Marshmallow doesn't give up, giving one last swing in attempt to drag Hans down with him. Unfortunately, he fails, and the giant snow beast plummets down into the chasm below, apparently to his death. While Hans battles Marshmallow the duke's men attack Elsa who fights back, nearly killing them both much to her own horror. Just as Elsa was about to murder the two, Hans appears and stops her, telling her not to prove she's the monster they believe she is. Elsa settles down a bit at Hans' words, realizing the demon she was becoming and halts her magic. However, one of the soldiers aims his arrow at Elsa, still following the Duke's orders, and just as he is about to shoot her, Hans intervenes, causing the arrow to cut through Elsa's chandelier which then plummets towards the ground. Elsa tries to escape the collision, but is knocked out in the process. Hans and the soldiers then capture her and head back to the kingdom. She wakes up shackled in a cell back in Arendelle Castle. Hans pleads with her to undo the winter but Elsa replies that she can't due to the fact that she is unable to control her powers. Anna is returned to Hans, freezing more and more cold and sick by the minute. She tells Hans everything that has happened and hopes he will kiss her and break the curse but instead, he cruelly reveals that he had been pretending to love her the whole time, as part of a fiendish plan to seize control of Arendelle's throne, because he is the youngest of thirteen brothers and will never reach the throne in his own kingdom. Anna tries to stop him, but she is far too weak. He puts the fire out to prevent Anna from getting any heat and warmth and leaves Anna to freeze to death. Then he tells the Duke and the kingdom's officials what Anna told him, in addition lying that he was too late to save her, and pretending to grieve for her, as part of his plan, he sentences Elsa to death. Elsa escapes from prison when she learns Hans means to have her executed for treason and heads out into the blizzard on the fjord. Meanwhile, in the castle with Hans having betrayed Anna and revealing himself to be a ruthless murderer, Anna's curse becomes stronger and her death process is nearly complete. When Olaf arrives, he finds Anna in the library, on the ground and quickly dying. Olaf comes to Anna's rescue and starts a fire to keep the princess warm. Olaf then asks what happened with the true love's kiss from Hans, to which Anna reveals his treachery and Hans never loved her. Fearing he'll melt, Anna tells Olaf to leave, but not wanting to abandon his friend, the snowman stays by her side, nearly melting during this time. Anna brokenheartedly tells Olaf she doesn't even know what love is anymore. Olaf replies by telling Anna love is putting someone else before yourself, using Kristoff as an example, thus revealing his true feelings to Anna, much to the princess' surprise. Suddenly, the library's window bursts open due to the strong winter winds, and Olaf rushes to close it. Before he does, he notices Kristoff and Sven rushing back to the castle. Knowing Kristoff is truly the one that loves Anna, the two try to head out to meet him. Olaf then aids the dying princess out of the castle and into the fjords. The two then travel together out on the fjord to find him, where he is racing back to the kingdom. With a sword at hand, Hans is prepared to slay the queen, and eventually stumbles upon her, telling her she can't escape all the horrible things she's already done. Elsa pleads for mercy, still believing Hans to be a benevolent prince and asks him to take care of her sister for her. Hans cuts Elsa off and tells her Anna is dead because of her. Devastated by the horrific news, Elsa breaks down in tears. In Elsa's despair, the storm immediately stops, giving Kristoff and Anna the chance to reach each other. But at that moment, Anna hears a sword being drawn a short distance away. In horror, Anna sees that Hans is about to kill her sister. Anna must choose to save herself or her sister, which is only seconds away. After one last look at Kristoff, she makes her decision to save Elsa, throwing herself between Elsa and Hans; she freezes solid just as Hans' sword hits her instead of Elsa, also causing Hans to be brutally knocked out unconscious. After a few moments of despair, Elsa sees her sister has thawed and come back to life because she sacrificed herself to save her sister, constituting an act of true love which Olaf first realizes. Elsa realizes love is the key to controlling her powers and thaws the kingdom. Overjoyed, Olaf smiles with glee, but quickly melts due to the summer heat. Elsa restores him and gives him a small flurry cloud to hover over his body and keep him completely cool, finally allowing the snowman to live his dream of experiencing summer and all its wonders. When Hans awakens several moments later, he finds Arendelle thawed and peace restored. When Kristoff attempted to confront Hans for trying to kill the two sisters, Elsa seems touched by Kristoff's protectiveness over her and Anna but Anna decides to confront him instead. Anna then approaches the manipulative prince, and the sight of Anna alive and well confuses Hans, prompting him to ask how she'd survive the frozen heart curse. Eventually, Anna berates Hans by telling him he's the only one around here with the frozen heart and turns her back at him much to Hans' disbelief, and out of fury, the princess turns around and punches him in the face off the ship they were aboard a few seconds later. Anna and Elsa then hug, their friendship restored stronger than ever. As the sisters hug, Anna looks lovingly towards Kristoff. Exposed as the manipulating liar he is, Hans is then arrested and deported back to his own kingdom to face punishment from his 12 older brothers for his deeds, and Elsa cuts off all trade with Weselton. The Duke tries to claim he was innocent and a victim of fear, but to no avail, and he and his thugs are sent back to Weselton, which he is heard insisting is not named "Weasel Town" after being mispronounced once again, though purposely by Kai to annoy him. Sometime later, Anna gives Kristoff a new sled and reveals Elsa has named him the Official Ice Master for the kingdom and so he can be with Anna and the two share a kiss. Elsa creates an ice rink in one of the castle courtyards and promises to never shut the castle gates again, while gifting Anna with a pair of ice skates (made out of ice). Anna is delighted but tells Elsa she can't skate. Elsa helps her, who is later joined by Olaf. The movie ends with everyone in Arendelle skating, making the most of Elsa's ice rink. After the credits, it is revealed that Marshmallow had survived, and he's seen limping back into the castle with a new made leg where all he finds is Elsa's old crown. The monster looks around for a moment and smiles. Then, pleasing his inner princess, Marshmallow happily crowns himself ruler of the castle while going back to his normal and peaceful form smiling and letting out a happy sigh, happily continuing his life in the North Mountains. Voice cast Development Origins In 1943, Walt Disney and Samuel Goldwyn had considered the possibility of collaborating together to produce a biography film of author and poet Hans Christian Andersen, where Goldwyn's studio would shoot the live-action sequences and Disney would create the animated sequences. The animated sequences were to include stories of Andersen's works, such as "The Little Mermaid", "The Little Match Girl", "The Snow Queen", "Thumbelina", "The Ugly Duckling", "The Red Shoes" and "The Emperor's New Clothes". Walt and his animators were having hard troubles about The Snow Queen, as they couldn't find a way to adapt and relate the Snow Queen character to modern audiences. Even as far back as the 1940s, Disney's animation department saw great cinematic possibilities with the source material, but the Snow Queen character herself, proved to be too problematic. This, among other things, led to the cancellation of the Disney-Goldwyn project. Goldwyn went on to produce his own live action film version in 1952, entitled Hans Christian Andersen, with Danny Kaye as Andersen, Charles Vidor directing, Moss Hart writing, and Frank Loesser (Guys and Dolls, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying) penning the songs. All of Andersen's fairy tales were, instead, told in song and ballet in live action, like the rest of the film. It went on to receive six Academy Award nominations the following year. Back at Disney, The Snow Queen, along with other Andersen fairy tales (including The Little Mermaid), were shelved. Later efforts In the late 1990s, Walt Disney Feature Animation started on their own adaptation of The Snow Queen after the tremendous success of the Disney Renaissance films, until the project was scrapped completely in late 2002, when Glen Keane notoriously quit the project. Even before then, Harvey Fierstein pitched his version of the story to the Disney executives, but was turned down. Dick Zondag (We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story), and Dave Goetz (An American Tail, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Tangled) all had their try on it, but failed. Disney shelved the project again. Michael Eisner then-CEO and Chairman of The Walt Disney Company, offered his support to the project and suggested doing it with John Lasseter at Pixar Animation Studios, when the studios would get their contracts renewed. However, in March 2010, four years after the Pixar acquisition, Disney commissioned the project instead at Walt Disney Animation Studios, with Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale directing, along with Don Hahn to produce, John Lasseter to executive produce, Linda Woolverton to write the script, and Alan Menken and Glenn Slater to write the songs. By June 2010, the project entered development once again, when the studio failed to find a way to make the story and the Snow Queen character work. Revitalization On December 22, 2011, following the success of Tangled (formerly Rapunzel), Disney announced a new title for the film, Frozen, and a release date, November 27, 2013, and a different crew from the previous attempt. A month later, it was confirmed that the film would be a computer animated feature in stereoscopic 3D, instead of the intended hand drawn animation. On March 5, 2012, it was announced that Chris Buck (Tarzan, Surf's Up) would be directing, with John Lasseter and Peter Del Vecho (The Princess and the Frog) producing. When Disney decided to start up The Snow Queen again, one of the main challenges Buck and Del Vecho faced was the character of the Snow Queen, which in that earlier version of the story, was a villain. Buck and Del Vecho presented their storyboards to John Lasseter, with the entire production team adjourned to a conference to hear John's thoughts on this work-in-progress. Production designer Michael Giaimo, recalled; "That was the game changer...I remember John saying that the latest version of The Snow Queen story that Chris Buck and his team had come up with was fun, very light-hearted. But the characters didn't resonate. They aren't multi-faceted. Which why John felt that audiences wouldn't really be able to connect with them." The production team then addressed the film's problems, drafting several different variations on the Snow Queen story until the characters and story felt relevant. The film's protagonist, Anna, was based on the Gerda character from The Snow Queen, whereas Kristoff was loosely based on the Robber Girl character. The production team decided to have Anna and Elsa (the Snow Queen) as sisters. "From that moment forward, the project began to jell in some very exciting ways. Once we realized that these characters could be siblings and have a relationship, everything changed," Del Vecho enthused. Columnist Jim Hill wrote on the film's production back-story, "Lasseter also immediately saw the wisdom in taking the approach to adapting the story of The Snow Queen to the big screen. That a sibling dynamic like this had never been explored in an animated feature before. Which is why making this particular story change would definitely bring new to that table." Production On March 5, 2012, it was announced that actress Kristen Bell would provide her voice to the lead character, Anna. "Since I was 4 years old, I dreamed of being in a Disney animated film," Bell said. "It was the first goal I ever set for myself. It seemed like it would be a very unrealistic one." When Bell was a little girl, she recorded a voice box where she sang a couple of songs from The Little Mermaid, including "Part of Your World", after growing much fascination of wanting to appear in a Disney animated film from The Little Mermaid and Aladdin. Her Little Mermaid vocal tracks were part of the reason why she got the part of Anna, as director Jennifer Lee said to her that if she hadn't recorded her own vocal tracks from Mermaid, it would've been very difficult to the find the right one to play Anna. She did the recording sessions while she was pregnant. After she gave birth, she re-recorded some lines as her voice had deepened, and there were "more womanly tones." In addition to Bell's casting, Disney cast Idina Menzel as Elsa the Snow Queen on June 23, 2012. On December 19, 2012, it was announced that Jonathan Groff would voice the role of Kristoff. In June 2013, It was also announced that Alan Tudyk, who voiced King Candy in Wreck-It Ralph, would voice the role of the Duke of Weselton, along with Santino Fontana as Prince Hans, and Josh Gad as Olaf the snowman. When asked on her approach to Anna, Kristen Bell replied, "I'm really excited to show it to people. I became a part of the kind of movie I wanted to see as a kid," she said. "I always loved Disney animation, but there was something about the females that was unattainable to me. Their posture was too good and they were too well-spoken, and I feel like I really made this girl much more relatable and weirder and scrappier and more excitable and awkward. I'm really proud of that." On November 30, 2012, it was announced that Jennifer Lee, one of the screenwriters of Wreck-It Ralph, had joined Buck as co-director. "We brought Jen the co-director as a writer originally but she so quickly took to the story we were trying to tell, she worked so well with our song writers and had such a passion that it became clear she'd bring a lot of creativity to the film, was very much in sync with Chris. And given the time frame we needed two directors," Del Vecho remarked. Following the announcement, Jennifer Lee became the first woman to direct a full-length animated motion picture produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. Peter Del Vecho commented on the matter of having two directors on the project: "In story planning we're always together. That's myself, the head of story, the songwriters and JenLee and Chris Buck; you can't do anything until you get that story working. But after that, we have the ability to keep Jen working on story while Chris is working on animation, and then they come together again in editorial. The idea of two directors is that they can come together to bounce ideas off each another when they need to but also split their duties a little bit so that, essentially, they can get more work done in a straight day." Animation The film's animators visited an Ice Hotel in Quebec, Canada to study how light reflects and refracts on snow and ice. For the film's setting, the animators used the landscape of Norway and the feel of the winter season of Wyoming for inspiration. "We had a very short time schedule for this film, so our main focus was really to get the story right but we knew that John Lasseter is keen on truth in the material and creating a believable world, and again that doesn't mean it's a realistic world - but a believable one. It was important to see the scope and scale of Norway, and important for our animators to know what it's like," Del Vecho remarked. "There is a real feeling of Lawrence of Arabia scope and scale to this," he finished. Back at the studio, Del Vecho explained the film's production: "On this movie we do have character leads, supervising animators on specific characters. The animators themselves may work on multiple characters but it's always under one lead. I think it was different on Tangled, for example, but we chose to do it this way as we wanted one person to fully understand and develop their own character and then be able to impart that to the crew. Hyrum Osmond, the animator on Olaf, is quiet but he has a funny, wacky personality so we knew he'd bring a lot of comedy to it; Anna's animator, Becky Bresee, it's her first time leading a character and we wanted her to lead Anna. Regarding the look and nature of the film's cinematography, the film's art director Michael Giaimo (Pocahontas) was greatly influenced by the legendary Jack Cardiff's work in Black Narcissus, which lends a hyper-reality to Frozen: "Because this is a movie with such scale and we have the Norwegian fjords to draw from, I really wanted to explore the depth. From a design perspective, since I was stressing the horizontal and vertical aspects, and what the fjords provide, it was perfect. We encased the sibling story in scale." In fact, Ted D. McCord's work on The Sound of Music was another major influence: "The juxtaposition of character and environment and the counterpart of how they played in terms of cinematography was brilliant in that film," Giaimo added. It was also his idea that Frozen should be filmed in CinemaScope, which was warmly approved by John Lasseter. Columnist Bill Desowitz wrote about the design and majesty of the film's visual splendor: "According to Giaimo, there were three important takeaways from the research trip in making Frozen unique to the Disney canon: the fjords, which are the massive vertical rock formations, and serve as the setting for the secluded Arendelle kingdom; the medieval stave churches, whose rustic triangular roof-lines and shingles inspired the castle compound; and the rosemaling folk art, whose distinctive paneling and grid patterns informed the architecture, decor, and costumes (the most elaborate in Disney history, designed by Brittney Lee). For Giaimo, whose background is animation and got into story, character design, environment and art, definitely achieves a unity of character and environment. "Now that I look back on Frozen, that's why I'm not afraid of color. I wanted very saturated colors and I wanted to use black, which is usually a no-no in CG." A live reindeer was brought into the studio for animators to study its movements and mannerisms for the character, Sven. When the English title for the film was officially changed from The Snow Queen to Frozen, Peter Del Vecho explains "The title Frozen came up independently of the title Tangled. It's because, to us, it represents the movie. Frozen plays on the level of ice and snow but also the frozen relationship, the frozen heart that has to be thawed. We don't think of comparisons between Tangled and Frozen, though. The decision to call the film Frozen was the filmmakers' decision. The studio's decision to then call it the Snow Queen overseas was because that just resonated stronger in some countries than Frozen. Maybe there's a richness to the Snow Queen in the country's heritage and they just wanted to emphasize that." As he continued, "We're telling a story about family and relationships and that in itself can be very complicated. A lot of times what you perceive something to be isn't what it turns out to be – Elsa has to hide for her whole life who she is, even from her sister. That clearly affected her and made her into the character she is. Hopefully, if you look at the story through Elsa's eyes you'll be able to understand what she does or if you look at it through Anna's eyes you'll be able to understand why she does what she does, but they're all complicated relationships. We don't think of it as a Princess movie. They happen to be Princesses but we don't think about it that way, so I always get a bit thrown when people talk about this. But I can say we want to make them really believable and not set them up on a pedestal. Our version of these characters should feel really real and be relatable to things you might go through in your life." Scandinavian and Sami inspiration The setting was principally based on Norway, and the cultural influences in the film come from scandinavian culture. Several landmarks in Norway appear in the film, including the Akershus in Oslo, the Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim, and Bryggen in Bergen. Numerous other typical cultural Scandinavian elements are also included in the film, such as steve churches, trolles, Viking ships, Fjord horses, clothes, and food such as lutefisk. A maypole is also present in the film, as well as the brief appearance of runes in a book that the King opens to figure out where the trolls live. The film also contains several elements specifically drawn from the Sami culture, such as the usage of reindeer for transportation and the equipment used to control these, clothing styles (the outfits of the ice cutters), and parts of the musical score. Decorations, such as those on the castle pillars and Kristoff's sled, are also in styles inspired by Sámi duodji decorations. During their field work in Norway, Disney's team, for inspiration, visited Rørosrein, a Sámi family-owned company in the village Plassje that produces reindeer meat and arranges tourist events. Arendelle was inspired by Nærøyfjord, a branch of Norway's longest fjord Sognefjorden, which has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site ; while a castle in Oslo with beautiful hand-painted patterns on all four walls served as the inspiration for the kingdom's royal castle interior. The filmmakers' trip to Norway provided essential knowledge for the animators to come up with the design aesthetic for the film in terms of color, light, and atmosphere. According to Giaimo, there were three important factors that they had acquired from this research trip: the fjords, which are the massive vertical rock formations, and serve as the setting for the secluded kingdom of Arendelle; the medieval stave churches, whose rustic triangular rooflines and shingles inspired the castle compound; and the rosemaling folk art, whose distinctive paneling and grid patterns informed the architecture, decor, and costumes. Music The original songs for Frozen were written and composed by the husband-and-wife songwriting team of Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, both of whom had previously worked with Walt Disney Animation Studios on Winnie the Pooh. At D23's Destination D event in August 2012, a song called "Let It Go" was performed as a preview. The song is performed by Idina Menzel as Elsa, when she leaves the kingdom and creates her own ice castle. In February 2013, it was reported that Christophe Beck. had been hired to score the film, following his highly acclaimed work on a Disney animated short film Paperman, the year prior to Frozen. Kristen Bell also confirmed that there will be a duet between her and Menzel. On August 8, 2013, "Let It Go" and "In Summer," Olaf's song, were revealed at the Disney D23 Expo. It was also revealed on September 14, 2013 that Frode Fjellheim's Eatnemen Vuelie will be the film's opening song. For the orchestral film score, composer Christophe Beck gave homage to the Norway and Sápmi-inspired setting, employing regional instruments such as the bukkehorn and traditional vocal techniques, such as kulning. The music producers recruited a Norwegian linguist to assist with the lyrics for an Old Norse song written for Elsa's coronation, and also traveled to Norway to record the all-female choir Cantus, for a piece inspired by traditional Norwegian music. The score was recorded by an 80-piece orchestra, featuring 32 vocalists, including native Norwegian Christine Hals. Beck worked with Lopez and Anderson-Lopez on incorporating their songs into arrangements in the score. The trio's goal "was to create a cohesive musical journey from beginning to end." Localization Disney localizes its own media products through Disney Character Voices International, which in this case was tasked with translating and dubbing the film into 41 languages (compared with only 15 for The Lion King). A major challenge, which was eventually solved, was to find sopranos capable of matching Menzel's warm vocal tone and three-octave vocal range in their native languages. Release Frozen was released theatrically in the United States on November 27, 2013, and it was accompanied by the new Mickey Mouse animated short film, Get a Horse! The film's premiere was at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California on November 19, 2013, and had a five-day limited release there, starting from November 22, before going into wide opening. Frozen was promoted heavily at several Disney theme parks including Disneyland's Fantasyland, Disney California Adventure's World of Color, Epcot's Norway pavilion, and Disneyland Paris' Disney Dreams! show, with meet-and-greet sessions involving the film's two main characters, Anna and Elsa. On November 6, 2013, Disney Consumer Products began releasing a line of toys and other merchandise relating to the film in Disney Store and other retailers. The teaser trailer for Frozen was released on June 18, 2013, and its official trailer was released on September 26, 2013. On January 31, 2014, a sing-along issue of Frozen was released in 2,057 theaters in the United States. This version features on-screen lyrics, and viewers are invited to follow the bouncing snowflake and sing along with the songs from the film. Home media Frozen was released for digital download on February 25, 2014 on iTunes and Amazon. It will also be released by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on Blu-ray Disc and DVD on March 18, 2014. Bonus features for the Blu-ray release will include the making of the film, an inside look at how Disney tried to adapt the original fairy tale into an animated feature, four deleted scenes with introduction by the directors, the original theatrical short Get a Horse!, the film's teaser trailer, and "Let It Go" music videos by Demi Lovato, Martina Stoessel, and Marsha Milan Londoh. Video games A video game titled Frozen: Olaf's Quest was released on November 19, 2013 for Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS. Developed by 1st Playable Productions and published by GameMill Entertainment, it takes place after the events of the film. In the game, Olaf must use his unique snowman abilities to try and stay in one piece throughout 60 levels. Anna and Elsa were released as figurines in the Frozen toy box pack for the toy-based video game Disney INFINITY on November 26, 2013, and both figures were released separately on March 11, 2014. Additionally, Disney Mobile released a match-three game titled Frozen: Free Fall for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone platforms. It takes place in the kingdom of Arendelle and closely follows the original story of the film, in which players can team up with Anna, Elsa, Kristoff, Hans, and Pabbie to match puzzles with the help of each character's special power-ups. Six mini-games can be played on the Disney website. International release *November 20, 2013 (Armenia, France, Georgia) *November 27, 2013 (Canada, the Philippines) *November 28, 2013 (Germany, Macedonia, Israel, Croatia, Malaysia, Portugal, Singapore) *November 29, 2013 (Bulgaria, Spain, Indonesia, Poland, India) *December 4, 2013 (France, Belgium) *December 5, 2013 (Hungary, Cambodia, Slovenia, Thailand) *December 6, 2013 (UK, Ireland) *December 7, 2013 (UAE) *December 11, 2013 (Netherlands) *December 12, 2013 (Russia) *December 13, 2013 (Iceland, Vietnam) *December 18, 2013 (Egypt) *December 19, 2013 (Greece, Hong Kong, Italy, Kuwait, Mexico, Ukraine) *December 20, 2013 (Finland, Pakistan, South Africa) *December 25, 2013 (Denmark, Norway) *December 26, 2013 (Australia, New Zealand, Serbia) *December 27, 2013 (Romania, Taiwan) *January 2, 2014 (Argentina, Chile) *January 3, 2014 (Brazil, Lithuania) *January 16, 2014 (Spain) *January 17, 2014 (Estonia, Turkey) *February 5, 2014 (China) *February 14, 2014 (Bangladesh) *March 14, 2014 (Japan) Reception Box office Frozen has earned $400,479,972 in North America as of May 15, 2014, and $805,800,000 in other countries as of May 18, for a worldwide total of $1,206,279,972, making Anna and Elsa the richest Disney Princesses in terms of box office success. Frozen is the sixth highest-grossing film, the highest-grossing animated film, the second highest-grossing 2013 film, the highest-grossing 2013 animated film, the highest-grossing non-sequel animated film, the third highest-grossing Disney-distributed film, the highest-grossing Walt Disney Pictures release, and the highest-grossing Walt Disney Animation Studios film. The film earned $110.6 million worldwide on its opening weekend. Excluding re-releases, it is the highest-grossing non-sequel animated film in North America, outside North America and worldwide. On March 2, 2014, its 101st day of release, it surpassed the $1-billion mark, becoming the eighteenth film in cinematic history, the seventh Disney-distributed film, the fifth non-sequel film, the second Disney-distributed film in 2013 (after Iron Man 3) and the second animated film (after Toy Story 3) to do so. During its nineteenth weekend of release, Frozen surpassed Toy Story 3 in the worldwide box office, becoming the highest-grossing animated film of all time. Bloomberg Businessweek magazine reported in March 2014 that outside analysts had projected the film's total cost at somewhere around $323 million to $350 million for production, marketing, and distribution, and had also projected that the film would generate $1.3 billion in revenue from box office ticket sales, digital downloads, discs, and television rights. North America Frozen became Fandango's top advance ticket-seller among original animated films, outselling previous record-holder Brave. The film opened on Friday, November 22, 2013, exclusively at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood for a five-day limited release and earned $342,839 before its wide opening on Wednesday, November 27, 2013. During the three-day weekend it earned $243,390, scoring the seventh largest per-theater average. On the opening day of its wide release, the film earned $15.2 million (including $800,000 from Tuesday previews) and set a record for the highest pre-Thanksgiving Wednesday opening, ahead of Tangled ($11.9 million). It was also the second largest pre-Thanksgiving Wednesday among all films, behind Catching Fire ($20.8 million). The film finished in second place over the traditional three-day weekend (Friday-to-Sunday) with $67.4 million, setting an opening weekend record among Walt Disney Animation Studios films. It also scored the second largest opening weekend among films that did not debut at #1. Among films that opened during Thanksgiving, it set new records; three-day ($67.4 million from Friday to Sunday) and five-day ($93.6 million from Wednesday to Sunday). It also achieved the second largest three-day and five-day Thanksgiving gross among all films, behind Catching Fire. During its second weekend of wide release, Frozen declined 53% to $31.6 million, but jumped to first place, setting a record for the largest post-Thanksgiving weekend, ahead of Toy Story 2 ($27.8 million). It became the first film since Avatar to reach first place on its sixth weekend of wide release (January 3–5, 2014) with $19.6 million. It remained in the Top 10 at the box office for seventeen consecutive weekends (the longest run by any film since 2002) and achieved large weekend grosses from its fifth to its twelfth weekend (of wide release), compared to other films in their respective weekends. On April 25, 2014, Frozen became the 19th movie to gross $400 million in North America and the 15th to do so without a major re-release. In North America, Frozen is the nineteenth highest-grossing film, the third highest-grossing 2013 film, the fourth highest-grossing animated film, the highest-grossing 2013 animated film, the fifth highest-grossing 3-D film, the sixth highest-grossing Disney-distributed film, and the second highest-grossing Walt Disney Animation Studios film. Excluding re-releases, it has achieved the highest-grossing initial run among non-sequel animated films (a record previously held by Finding Nemo) and among Walt Disney Animation Studios films (a record previously held by The Lion King). It is also the fourth animated film to reach $400 million domestically, and the second original animated film to reach that milestone. Outside North America Frozen is the ninth highest-grossing film, the highest-grossing animated film, the second highest-grossing 2013 film, the highest-grossing non-sequel animated film, and the highest-grossing Walt Disney Animation Studios film. It is the highest-grossing animated film of all time in South Korea, Denmark, and Venezuela. It is also the highest-grossing Walt Disney Animation Studios film in at least 50 territories, including the Latin America region (specifically in Mexico and Brazil), the UK, Ireland, and Malta, Russia and the CIS, Ukraine, Norway, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and China; it was the highest-grossing animated feature film of all time under the Disney/Pixar title in 27 territories, including Russia, China and Brazil. The film made its debut outside North America on the same weekend as its wide North American release and earned $16.7 million from sixteen markets. It topped the box office outside North America for two weekends in 2014; January 10–12 ($27.8 million) and February 7–9 ($24 million). Overall, its largest opening weekends occurred in China (five-day opening of $14.3 million), Russia and the CIS ($11.9 million, including previews from previous weekend), where the film set an opening weekend record among Disney animated films (ahead of Tangled) and non-sequel animated films, and Japan (three-day opening of $9.73 million). It set an opening weekend record among animated films in Sweden. In total earnings, the film's top market after North America is Japan, with $143.2 million (topping the country's box office for eight consecutive weekends), followed by South Korea ($76.9 million), and the United Kingdom, Ireland and Malta ($65.3 million). In South Korea, Frozen is the second largest foreign film both in terms of attendance and gross, the largest Disney release in the market, and the first animated film to earn more than ten million admissions. Critical response Frozen received widespread critical acclaim, with several critics have compared the film favorably to the films of the Disney Renaissance, particularly The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King. The film was praised for its visuals, messages, musical numbers, and voice acting, especially of Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, and Josh Gad. The "Let It Go" musical sequence was repeatedly singled out for praise, with some critics calling it one of the best film sequences of the year. The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 89% of critics gave the film a positive review based on 186 reviews, with an average score of 7.8/10, making it the highest rated family film in 2013. The site's consensus reads: "Beautifully animated, smartly written, and stocked with singalong songs, Frozen adds another worthy entry to the Disney canon." At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a score of 75 based on 37 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews." CinemaScore polls conducted during the opening weekend revealed the average grade cinemagoers gave Frozen was an A+ on an A+ to F scale. Alonso Duralde of The Wrap hailed the film as "the best animated musical to come out of Disney since the tragic death of lyricist Howard Ashman, whose work on The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast helped build the studio's modern animated division into what it is today." He also elaborated that "while it lags the tiniest bit on its way to the conclusion, the script...really delivers; it offers characters to care about, along with some nifty twists and surprises along the way." Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter observes Frozen as a true musical and wrote "You can practically see the Broadway musical Frozen is destined to become while watching Disney's 3D animated princess tale." McCarthy described the film as "energetic, humorous and not too cloying, as well as the first Hollywood film in many years to warn of global cooling rather than warming, this tuneful toon upgrades what has been a lackluster year for big studio animated fare and, beginning with its Thanksgiving opening, should live up to box office expectations as one of the studio's hoped-for holiday-spanning blockbusters." Kyle Smith of the New York Post awarded the film 3.5 out of 4 stars and praised the film as "a great big snowy pleasure with an emotionally gripping core, brilliant Broadway-style songs and a crafty plot. Its first and third acts are better than the jokey middle, but this is the rare example of a Walt Disney Animation Studios effort that reaches as deep as a Pixar film." Scott Mendelson of Forbes enthused; "Frozen is both a declaration of Disney's renewed cultural relevance, and a reaffirmation of Disney coming to terms with its own legacy and its own identity. It's also a just plain terrific bit of family entertainment." The Los Angeles Times extolled the film's ensemble voice talent and elaborate musical sequences, and declared Frozen as "a welcome return to greatness for Walt Disney Animation Studios." Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman gave the film a "B+" grade and labeled it as a "squarely enchanting fairy tale that shows you how the definition of what's fresh in animation can shift." Richard Corliss of Time also lauded the film, writing that, "It's great to see Disney returning to its roots and blooming anew: creating superior musical entertainment that draws on the Walt tradition of animation splendor and the verve of Broadway present." Richard Roeper acclaimed the film as an "absolute delight from start to finish." Both Michael Phillips of Chicago Tribune and Stephen Holden of The New York Times praised the film's characters and musical sequences, which also drew comparisons to the theatrics found in Wicked. Emma Dibdin of Digital Spy awarded the film five out of five stars and called the film "a new Disney classic" and "an exhilarating, joyous, human story that's as frequently laugh out loud funny as it is startling and daring and poignant." Hot on the heels of the 90th anniversary, it's impossible to imagine a more perfect celebration of everything Disney is at its best." However, the film was not without its criticisms. Scott Foundas of Variety, wasn't as equally impressed with the film, but nevertheless commended the film's voice acting and technical artistry: "The tactile, snow-capped Arendelle landscape, including Elsa's ice castle retreat is Frozen's other true marvel, enhanced by 3D and the decision to shoot in widescreen – a nod to the CinemaScope richness of Sleeping Beauty and Lady and the Tramp." The Seattle Times gave the film two out of four stars, stating that "While it is an often gorgeous film with computer-generated fjords and ice sculptures and castle interiors, the important thing that glues all this stuff together — story — is sadly lacking." Joe Williams of St. Louis Post-Dispatch also criticized the story as the film's weakest point. Controversy Allegations of sexism occurred, after head of animation for Frozen, Lino DiSalvo, said: "Historically speaking, animating female characters are really, really difficult, because they have to go through these range of emotions, but you have to keep them pretty and they're very sensitive too — you can get them off a model very quickly. So, having a film with two hero female characters was really tough, and having them both in the scene and look very different if they're echoing the same expression; that Elsa looking angry looks different from Anna being angry." Thus suggesting a difficulty exists due to a limit range of facial variation for recent Disney female cartoon characters because of the need to keep them "pretty". A Disney spokesperson told Time that DiSalvo's quote was widely misinterpreted. In reality he was speaking of how easy it is to distort female characters faces when getting them to express them selves. That keeping their facial features intact, while still having them express many emotions, is always a fairly difficult thing to do. And that having two female protagonists doubled the already high levels of difficulty. In addition, on December 3, one of the showings of the film at a Regal Entertainment theater in Pinellas Park, Florida, received a complaint from several parents, including Lynn Greene of Largo, regarding briefly showing a sexually explicit scene from an R-rated film. According to Greene, the scene in question briefly featured "filler" resembling something akin to Steamboat Willie before transitioning. The movie was also heavily criticized by a Mormon grandmother for what she calls "promoting the homosexual agenda".http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/18/disney-frozen-mormon-gay-_n_4810851.html However, John Nolte, a journalist on the Conservative news site Breitbart, stated that the film pushed no such agenda, also making clear that he is able to detect any subtle agendas in any films.http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Hollywood/2014/03/13/Disneys-frozen-is-not-homosexual-propaganda Some conspiracy theorists have said the title of the film; Frozen, is a code for the current state of Walt Disney. This is likely due to the long-lived urban legend that Walt Disney is cryonically preserved, or "frozen". In actuality, Disney was cremated, which is the polar opposite of cryonics, and there has never been any evidence that Walt Disney expressed any intent to prolong his life by such means. Accolades Franchise Potential Bob Iger, chairman and chief executive officer of The Walt Disney Company, stated in a January 2014 interview with Fortune that Disney Theatrical Productions is in early development of a Broadway stage musical adaptation of Frozen. No specific date has yet been set for this adaptation. "We're not demanding speed," Iger said. "We're demanding excellence." A microsite for the stage adaptation has been launched by Disney, where users can sign up to receive email updates on the musical. During The Walt Disney Company's 2014 first-quarter earnings conference call on February 5, 2014, Iger congratulated "all those involved with Frozen" and reiterated that it would "be going to Broadway. He also noted that Frozen "has real franchise potential" and predicted that "You will see Frozen in more places than you've certainly seen today. In the same earnings call, Iger alluded to "high demand for Frozen merchandise," which was expanded upon by Disney senior executive vice president and chief financial officer Jay Rasulo: "Over the most recent quarter...if I had to pick out a single item, I would say Frozen items were the single most demanded items at Disney Stores." In March 2014, Bloomberg Businessweek reported that Disney had sold almost 500,000 Anna and Elsa dolls, with a 5,000 limited-edition run selling out online in only 45 minutes in January. Demand only increased further after the mid-March home video release; toy industry expert Jim Silver explained home video enabled children to "watch it over and over again" and "fall in love" with the film's characters. Chris Buck mentioned in an April 2014 interview that the directors hadn't bought anything for themselves "thinking it wouldn't be a problem, and now everything's sold out!" By mid-April, U.S. consumer demand for Frozen merchandise was so high that resale prices for higher-quality limited-edition Frozen dolls and costumes had skyrocketed past $1,000 on eBay, both Disney and its licensees had arranged for air freight to rush fresh inventory to retailers besieged by desperate parents, and some of those parents had begun publicly venting their frustration through social media outlets such as the Disney Store's Facebook page. Needham & Co. analyst Sean McGowan compared the situation to the 1980s Cabbage Patch Kids craze, where "the demand is ... driven by the scarcity because of the social status attached to being able to find it". Fed up with the shortage, some parents took a "do it yourself" approach, and others went for custom-made replicas on crafts sites like Etsy. Similar shortages of Frozen merchandise were reported around the same time in the UK, Canada, France, and Singapore, though not as severe. In a mid-April interview, Disney Store Vice President Jonathan Storey admitted that although Disney had high expectations for the film, "demand went even higher than they thought it ever would." He also promised that more Frozen merchandise would be delivered to Disney Store locations immediately through regular shipments, and that new products were being developed for release throughout the year. By the end of April, Disney Parks had imposed a five-item limit at its stores, while Disney Store had imposed a two-item limit, restricted the release of the most popular items to store opening on Saturday mornings, and required guests to enter into a lottery on those mornings just for the chance to purchase the very popular Elsa costumes. Meanwhile, the meet-and-greets with Anna and Elsa at Disneyland and Epcot had been initially sponsored by The Walt Disney Studios as short-term temporary attractions to promote the film, but in February 2014, Disney Parks decided to extend them indefinitely in response to unprecedented demand, though now it had to find the money in its own budget to fund them going forward. By the beginning of March, wait time was reportedly as long as four or five hours to see Anna and Elsa, which fueled outside speculation about whether Disney Parks would respond with additional Frozen-specific attractions. After wait times at Norway Pavilion in Walt Disney World's Epcot reportedly reached six hours, in mid-April the Anna and Elsa meet-and-greets were finally moved to Princess Fairytale Hall at Magic Kingdom Park, where park guests could use the new FastPass+ reservation system (part of Disney's MyMagic+ project) to bypass the lengthy wait time. To date, Disney's Fastpass has not been made available for the Disneyland meet-and-greets, meaning that a journalist who tried standing in line on April 23, 2014 (a non-holiday mid-week morning five months after the film's premiere) had to wait three hours. Jezebel.com commented on the phenomenon, "Word has it that those characters are like the Beatles now, attracting large crowds of screaming females." However, as of April 2014, there have not been any plans for Anna and Elsa to join the Disney Princess line-up, though Disney Store confirmed that it was still possible the characters would be added to that franchise in the future. At the end of March 2014, Del Vecho confirmed that there had been "discussions on how we can support the film's characters at other locations and we are also discussing making a theatrical musical version of Frozen, but these things take time." As for the possibility of future sequels, Del Vecho explained that Buck, Lee and him "work very, very well together, so I believe we will be developing a new project. But I don't know what that is right now." In late April, Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan F. Horn said that "we haven't really talked about a sequel" because the studio's current priority is the planned Broadway musical, which will require "four or five" additional songs to be written by Lopez and Anderson-Lopez. During spring 2014, several journalists observed that Frozen was unusually catchy in comparison to the vast majority of films, in that many children in the U.S. and the UK were watching Frozen so many times that they now knew all the songs by heart and kept singing them again and again at every opportunity. When presented with that point in an April interview, songwriters Anderson-Lopez and Lopez explained there was simply no way they could have known how popular their work on Frozen would become. They were just trying to "tell a story that resonated" and "that didn't suck." During the Walt Disney Company's 2014 second-quarter earnings call on May 6, 2014, Iger said Frozen "is definitely up there in terms of, probably, our top five franchises", and that the company will "take full advantage of that over the next at least five years." He also explained Disney was still working on the musical, as well as publishing, interactive, and theme park projects. Rasulo disclosed that nine of the ten best-selling items at Disney Store in the second quarter were Frozen-related. The film will also play a factor in the fourth season of a television series produced by Disney-owned ABC Studios, Once Upon a Time. On May 11, 2014, the conclusion of the show's third season finale revealed a new storyline that will incorporate elements from Frozen, centering around the arrival of Elsa, the Snow Queen, after her urn was accidentally thrust into the time-traveling portal from the Enchanted Forest back to present-day Storybrooke. The show's executive producers later explained that Disney had not asked them to do a crossover. Rather, they fell in love with Frozen when it premiered in November, saw it three more times, then developed a story idea in February and successfully pitched it to ABC Studios, the ABC network, and then Disney brand management. Trivia *''Frozen'' features several nods to Disney's other feature-length Hans Christian Andersen tale The Little Mermaid, sometimes for the purpose of altering its elements rather starkly: **While The Little Mermaid begins with a view from the sky and later descends into the sea, Frozen begins with a view from under the sea and later ascends into the sky. **Both films begin with a pinch of backstory/foreshadowing delivered by men at work. In The Little Mermaid, sailors sing of Triton and Ursula in "Fathoms Below". In Frozen, ice harvesters give more vague foreshadowing in "Frozen Heart", but this time Elsa is not the villain like Ursula was. **While fantasizing about Prince Eric, Ariel speaks to and caresses the face of his statue. Anna does this also, yet in her case her affections are given to the handsome bust of an unknown dream prince...which ends up on top of a wedding-like cake. **The appearance and mannerisms of the Duke of Weselton invite comparison to those of Grimsby from The Little Mermaid. However, only one of them can be trusted. **Both Ariel and Anna fall in love at first sight (though Anna only think she does) with a handsome prince whom they have never met before. However, only Ariel can hope to gain with them a "happily ever after" with that specific prince. **Both Ariel and Elsa are forced to keep deep secrets locked away even from their own siblings. Once these secrets are revealed, both are greeted with destructive rejection, run away from their homes, and do something reckless involving dangerous magic. In both cases, the character can at this point be redeemed only by love (as it turns out, the self-sacrifice of a family member), yet in Elsa's case the magic comes from within. **Both Ariel and Anna enjoy the companionship of a silly sidekick who has little understanding of the world. Scuttle is a natural creature while Olaf is a magical one, but both give their heroine hope of survival in the 11th hour. *''Frozen'' also features similarities with Disney's 1994 film The Lion King. Both Elsa and Simba are the heir of their kingdom, after they're lost their parents (Elsa's parents because an accident and Simba's father killed by his uncle Scar). Both charecters also runaway from their home after their families tragic incidents, and after the charecters leaves, their kingdom were distracted, as because the kingdoms were ruled by villains (Hans and Scar). Also, both charecters finally return back to their kingdom and live happily ever after. **Interestingly, both films are claimed as The Best Disney Animated Movie, instead'' The Lion King'' was first, and Frozen was the second. *Elsa and Anna's differing hair colors may be a nod to the Brothers Grimm's fairy tale, (also about sisters) Snow-White and Rose-Red. *Although some Disney Princess characters appear in films outside their franchise, such as in a non-related film (ie, Belle's cameo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame) or as a storybook/painting (such as the reference to Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty in Beauty and the Beast as well as Aurora's painting in The Little Mermaid), Frozen is the first film within the Disney Princess franchise to have two separate representatives in the Disney Princess series directly appear alongside each other (Rapunzel appears as a cameo during Elsa's coronation in the beginning of the film, as one of the attendees). *''Frozen's love story is similar to that of ''Enchanted: The main heroine falls in love with the prince, and after a disaster, has to spend time with someone else, and finds out at the end that her true love is actually not the prince, but the person whom she spent more time with. Both heroines also have a duet with the prince, and want to marry as soon as possible. *The names of four of the main characters were inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's name; Hans, Kristoff, Anna & Sven. **Hans from Hans, Kristoff from Christ'ian, Anna from '''An'derson and Sven from Ander'''son. **The name Hans is also commonly used in Norway, Sweden and Denmark; these are the same places that Hans' home might be located in. *In the original fairy tale, The Snow Queen promised Kai a pair of skates if he solved a puzzle for her. As a reference to this, Elsa gives Anna a pair of skates at the end. *Gloves are used as major symbolism throughout the movie, but most noticeably with the characters, Elsa and Hans; both characters wear gloves when attempting to conceal their true selves, and their true identities are revealed when the characters remove their gloves (and Hans goes back into hiding his true self when he puts his gloves back on). *The only time Anna speaks with authority in a serious manner is when she says: "Bring me my horse" and "I leave Prince Hans in charge" and "We leave now. Right now". *The phrase "Hang in there" is used at multiple points in the movie. As seen in the trailer, it is used by Olaf as he is falling to his possible-doom off of a cliff outside Elsa's ice castle, and it is also used inside Arendelle's castle, where it is offered as encouragement by 9-year old Anna to (a painting of) Joan of Arc. Kristoff says "Hang in there" to Anna while they're riding on Sven back to the castle. Elsa also offers similar encouragement to an emperiled Olaf. *''Frozen'' is the second film based on a fairy tale to not be named after the original title, Tangled was the first. *There were many changes in the script StitchKingdom gave on their website in October 2013 before the final one. One example is Kristoff's line, featured in the the first trailer: "You wanna talk about a problem? I sell ice for a living." In the film, he says: "You want to talk about a supply and demand problem? I sell ice for a living." *The words "anymore" and "door" is used as a rhyme in 5 songs, chronologically ordered. **In "Do You Want to Build a Snowman", 5-year old Anna sings: "I never see you anymore, come out the door." **In "For the First Time in Forever", Anna sings: "The window is open, so's that door. I didn't know they did that anymore." **In "Love is an Open Door", Hans and Anna sing: "Say goodbye (say goodbye) to the pain of the past. We don't have to feel it anymore. Love is an open door." **In "Let It Go", Elsa sings: "Let it go, let it go. Can't hold it back anymore. Let it go, let it go. Turn away and slam the door." **In "For the First Time in Forever (Reprise)", Anna sings: "Please don't slam the door, you don't have to keep your distance anymore." *In "For the First Time in Forever (Reprise)", Elsa's line "What do I not know?" sounds very much like the line Cinderella sings in Rodgers and Hammerstein's production: "I do not know that this is so." Santino Fontana, who voices Hans, also plays Prince Topher in the Broadway version. *Only 6 characters, plus the trolls, sing. **Anna sings only 4 times: "Do You Want to Build a Snowman", "For the First Time in Forever", "Love Is An Open Door" and "For the First in Forever (Reprise)". **Elsa sings only three times: "For the First Time in Forever" (She sings a few lines during the song), "Let it Go" and "For the First Time in Forever (Reprise)". **Hans only sings once, which is "Love Is An Open Door". **Kristoff only sings once, which is "Reindeer(s) Are Better Than People". **Olaf only sings once, which is "In Summer". **The trolls only sing once, which is "Fixer Upper". *''Frozen'' marks the third use of ultra widescreen (Super Technirama 70) in a Disney animated film since and Sleeping Beauty and The Black Cauldron. *When Elsa is holding the scepter and orb, the bishop proclaims: "Sem hón heldr inum helgum eignum ok krýnd í þessum helga stað ek té fram fyrir yðr..." In English this means: "As she holds the holy properties, and is crowned in this holy place, I present to you... Queen Elsa of Arendelle". **In the script, it reads: "Sehm hon HELL-drr IN-um HELL-gum AYG-num ok krund ee THES-um HELL- gah STAHTH, ehk teh frahm FUR-ear U- thear..." *''Frozen'' is the seventh animated film to reach $300 million, and the third original animated film to reach that milestone. *''Frozen'' is the first animated film from the Walt Disney Animation Studios canon to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. *''Frozen'' became the second animated film to reach $1 billion at the worldwide box office, the first being Disney/Pixar's Toy Story 3. *To celebrate, the movie which came to Digital HD in February 25, 2014 and Blu-Ray Combo Pack at March 16, 2014, Walt Disney Animation Studios organize "Winter Sweepstakes" to win prizes of Frozen merchandise with upload the Winter-Themed photo into a Frozen frame, that can be joined here. *During Olaf's song, his dance with four seagulls is a nod to Bert's dance with four penguins from another Disney movie: Mary Poppins (1964). *There is a plush Mickey Mouse on one of the shelves in Wandering Oaken's Trading Post and Sauna. *When the King pulls the book off the shelf to figure out where to find the trolls, the book is written in Nordic runes, originating from Scandinavia where the film crew drew much inspiration. These runes were the basis for the dwarf-runes used in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. A map that falls out of the book which resembles the map of the Lonely Mountain seen in The Hobbit. *Over 24 minutes of the film is dedicated to musical sequences. *Olaf's name is a clue to his character's purpose in providing comic relief. It can be interpreted to mean "oh laugh." *There are 3 wood-carved bear figurines on Oaken's Table. *Anna arrives at Oaken's trading post at 10:30 PM (22:30). Goofs *When 5-year-old Anna sings "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" at the start, Elsa's door has no keyhole or handle. But after we see Anna singing in the Great Hall, she's singing through the keyhole with the handle above her head. *Anna cuts the rope, causing her and Kristoff fall down the mountain while they are still tied together. However, in the next scene the rope is nowhere to be found and they are not tied together. *When Anna and Kristoff are thrown down the stairs by Marshmallow, Anna's hat is missing. Her hat is back on her head in the next shot. *In the climactic scene where Prince Hans confronts Elsa, he is not wearing his sword. The sound of his sword being drawn is heard while Anna is on screen, and when Hans reappears he has his sword in hand but still no scabbard. (Contrast this to the assault on the ice castle where sword and scabbard are clearly visible.) *When Prince Hans is encountering Marshmallow for the first time, the two Gendarmes are tossed against a snow bank after they both fire their crossbows. As they are recovering, they collect themselves and you can see the crossbows on the ground, but no bolts, as one of them spots the Queen running up the stairs. In the next shot a bolt appears under the Gendarmes as he picks it up and chases after the queen. *When Kristoff & Sven have left Anna at the castle and go back to the mountain, they're stepping in the snow (leaving footprints). When the cloud appears over the castle and they return, there are no signs of their footprints. *Anna walks a few feet to put Olaf's head back the right way on his body. After she does this, she is back to the position she started in and Olaf has moved between Anna and Kristoff. *During Elsa's part in the musical number "For the First Time in Forever" she takes off her gloves and grabs a jewelry box and a candlestick in her bare hands in practice for the coronation ceremony. As the two items start to freeze she quickly puts them back again on the furniture and there is frost still visible on them. During the actual coronation, the same thing happens with the orb and scepter she holds in her hands, but when she drops them back on the cushion, they're briefly visible and there's no frost on them. *When Anna and Kristoff are in the sled on the way to the North Mountain, Kristoff asks her, "Didn't your parents ever warn you about strangers?" Anna replies, "Yes, they did." and moves over. The camera then focuses on Kristoff and then both of them. Anna is then shown in her original position. *Before Anna starts singing "For the First Time in Forever (Reprise)" in Elsa's castle, Olaf is present beside her on the staircase. However as she starts ascending the stairs Olaf is nowhere to be seen. *After Olaf's song ("In Summer") Hans hands a bunch of cloaks and warm clothes to a guard back in Arendelle to be given away. After he threatens the Duke of Weselton, Anna's horse returns to the castle and startles the same guard who drops the clothes. The camera then moves to a medium shot of Hans calming down the horse, and then returns to a full shot of Hans, the Duke and some villagers and the clothes the guard dropped disappear for the remainder of the scene. *After Olaf informs Anna and Kristoff about a staircase to Elsa's ice palace, the skin on Anna's leg above her boot is visible as she exclaims her gratefulness. When she falls down and Kristoff catches her, her leg is visible again, this time however in the same aforesaid area her skin is replaced with a stocking. *When Anna is revived towards the end and she and Elsa embrace, Elsa's braid is seen behind her back. However, after the two hug and release, Elsa's braid is now seen running down her left shoulder. *At the end of the movie, while Olaf is ice skating, his "own personal snow flurry" is gone. *When Marshmallow almost knocks Hans off the ice stairs to Elsa's palace, Hans throws his sword back onto the staircase to pull himself up. The sword zooms off the screen as some of Arendelle's guards help Hans up. In the next scene, Hans' sword materializes right next to the foot of one of the guards. *Following the "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" sequence, the camera follows random guests as the audience is enlightened on the events that are about to take place. Right before Kristoff's and Sven's appearance, the bridge to the castle is seen with a few people venturing to it. When the Duke of Weselton makes his first cameo, the bridge is now populated with numerous guests. In particular, a man wearing a dark blue jacket can be seen at the screen's edge, walking behind another female guest in a cyan dress. As the camera pans towards the Duke and his bodyguards more closely, the shadows of the nearest guests crossing the bridge disappear. When the foreign dignitaries begin conversing with one another, the aforementioned man and company are supplanted with another completely new set of eager guests: the aforementioned couple is now a man in a black suit in front of a young woman in a purple dress. *Towards the end of the film, Elsa is about to create an ice rink for the people of Arendelle. Right before she does, Kai, a woman, and other individuals are seen clapping with encouragement. A scene later, right before Elsa stomps the ground beneath her, the crowd mentioned before is different; only Kai and the woman remain. *When Anna is shown sleeping in a comical manner, drool is visible down the right side of her mouth. As someone calls her name, she pulls herself into a sitting posture. She visibly does not wipe her face at all; however after turning her head for a brief moment, her drool vanishes. *Right before Elsa unleashes her ice powers in front of a completely ignorant audience, a woman in a purple dress in the foreground behind Anna is seen with hands down and close to each other. In the next scene where Anna exclaims "What are you so afraid of?" the same woman from before now has her hands up in a defensive position. *In the same aforesaid scene, before Elsa reveals her cryokinetic abilities, Anna is the only person within a certain distance of Elsa. After Elsa reveals her powers, the Duke of Weselton, his bodyguards and Hans appear out of nowhere alongside Anna. *Before Elsa freezes the fountain after her powers are revealed, a tall slender man bows to her when she comes within range. He clearly is standing in front of the fountain. After a woman asks Elsa whether she is alright, the man is revealed to now be behind the fountain. *After the aforementioned events, Elsa looks at two clusters of people before running away from Arendelle. The last cluster consists of possibly a small family with a father, a mother, and three daughters of varing ages. The scene immediately after reveals Elsa to be looking in the same direction as before, which is towards the "family," but now the "family" is gone and replaced with other people. Notes and references *One of the paintings in the gallery is based on the painting "The Swing", by the French Rococo artist Jean-Honoré Fragonard, which was used as inspiration for the visual style of Tangled. Gallery Trailers and clips Disney's Frozen Teaser Trailer|''Frozen'' "Teaser Trailer" Disney's Frozen "First Time in Forever" Trailer-0|''Frozen'' Trailer "First Time in Forever" Frozen - Clip "No Heat Experience"|Clip "No Heat Experience" Frozen - Kristen Bell Interview|Kristen Bell Interview Frozen - Clip "Wolf Chase"|Clip "Wolf Chase" Frozen - Clip "Party Is Over"|Clip "Party Is Over" Frozen - Olaf's Summer Song|Olaf's Summer Song Frozen - Cast & Crew Interviews|Cast & Crew Interviews Frozen - "Big Summer Blowout" Clip|"Big Summer Blowout" Clip Elsa, from Frozen HD (720p)|Elsa's Magic Elsa from Disney's Frozen - Powers Revealed|Powers Unleashed Elsa from Disney's Frozen - Powers Unleashed with background|Powers Unleashed with background Disney's Frozen - Snowball Fight|Snowball Fight Disney's Frozen A Wave into the Weekend|Kristoff "Shy" and Sven Disney's Frozen - Olaf Nose Bump|Olaf Nose Bump Disney's Frozen - A Cold Weather Lesson from Sven|A Cold Weather Lesson from Sven Disney's Frozen - Olaf's Dance|Olaf's Dance Frozen - "That Happened" Clip|"That Happened" Clip Frozen - "Let It Go" Extended Clip|"Let it Go" Extended Clip Frozen - Bonus Clip "Meet Kristoff" Deleted Scene Edit|"Meet Kristoff" Deleted Scene Edit Frozen Bonus Clip - The Making Of The Making Of Frozen|The Making Of Frozen Frozen - 'The Dressing Room' Bonus Clip|'The Dressing Room' Bonus Clip Frozen - Original Theme and Art Bonus Clip|Original Theme and Art Bonus Clip Frozen - "Love Is An Open Door"|"Love Is An Open Door" Disney's Frozen - On Digital HD Now and Blu-ray Mar 18-0|Disney's Frozen Blu-ray ad Frozen_-_Cool_Trivia|''Frozen'' - Cool Trivia References External Links *Frozen Disney | Movies *Frozen User Reviews on Votable * *FROZEN on Stage *Frozen on Wikipedia *Frozen on IMDb *Frozen on Rotten Tomatoes *Disney Frozen's Official Facebook *Disney Frozen's Official Google+ *Disney Frozen's on Pinterest Category:Disney animated features canon Category:2013 Films Category:Films Category:Frozen Category:Animated films Category:3-D films Category:Disney Princess Films Category:Disney films Category:Films based on books Category:Annie Award for Best Animated Feature Category:Billion dollar films Category:Academy Award winning films Category:Disney Revival Category:Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards winners